Connect: Chapter Six

Powerlessness and Deadness

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).

There is something profoundly freeing in understanding the neurobiology of trauma. Because trauma is carried in your body and held there, stubbornly refusing to be buried, there is a never-ending push-pull that is created by the trauma trying to push its way out. You might feel crazy as you experience the effects of trauma that often don’t make logical sense. Your brain is vacillating between the need to express and the need to banish the horrors of what you’ve experienced, all at the same time.

As you feel safe, you will remember more of the pain you’ve experienced, and in this chapter you will begin to understand the ways in which you’ve numbed it in a defeated effort to forget. Allow these memories to come, and gently receive each one as a gift so that you can slowly begin to heal. Remembering and telling the truth about the terrible events you’ve experienced and perpetrated against others is one of the most courageous and worthy things you can do. Both are necessary for restoration and healing, for you individually and for your family and community. “Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place” (Psalm 51:6). As you boldly integrate your past with your present, the debilitating symptoms of trauma will gradually lessen.

The truth really does set you free.

Steve and Celestia

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
—John 8:32